The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has issued a £3.076 million monetary penalty to Advanced Computer Software Group Ltd (Advanced) following an NHS ransomware attack in August 2022 that led to the disruption of a number of critical services, such as NHS 111, and healthcare staff not being able to access patient records.
Following an investigation, the ICO found that the personal information belonging to 79,404 people was taken, including access details of 890 people receiving care at home.
The ICO concluded that Advanced had failed to implement appropriate technical or organisational measures in processing personal data, with serious deficiencies found in the company's vulnerability scanning, patch management and multi-factor authentication, a violation of Article 32 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The final monetary penalty amount was reduced from £6.09 million after Advanced provided details of its proactive approach to engaging with the NHS, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), and the National Crime Agency (NCA), along with the various measures taken to mitigate the impact of the breach.
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